The Next Frontier In TV: English News For Latinos

ABC News President Ben Sherwood (from left), Univision Networks President Cesar Conde and Univision News President Isaac Lee announced the joint venture between ABC News and Univision on May 7 in New York.

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Univision has been operating for five decades and already commands about three-quarters of the Spanish-speaking television audience in the U.S. across its various broadcast and cable channels, according to Nielsen ratings estimates. On many nights, its ratings beat the major English-language networks. Now it is joining with ABC News to map out an entirely new network to reach Hispanics who prefer English.

"This is a fascinating point in our country's history right now," says Cesar Conde, president of Univision networks.

NBC News is attempting to collaborate as never before with its sister Spanish-language network Telemundo. MundoFox, a Spanish-language network born of a partnership between News Corp.'s Fox International Channels and a Colombian network, made its formal debut this week.

But this joint venture between Univision and ABC is in some ways the most notable effort by any major media outlet to try to capture a greater Hispanic audience at a time when the Hispanic share of the U.S. population is markedly growing.

"Increasingly, we're seeing the influence of Latinos across all fronts in America, from cultural to social, political and of course economic fronts. And that has a number of repercussions," Conde says. "One of the areas that has been underserved is providing a culturally relevant offering for Hispanics in English to complement everything that we're doing on the Spanish-language front."

Conde calls this effort uncharted territory, and ABC decidedly wants to stake its claim. That means a shift in the network's newsroom culture. One notable piece of evidence of that change: Starting this month, all ABC News staffers are being offered free Spanish lessons.

ABC News President Ben Sherwood met with Conde and other Univision executives early last year in anticipation of the 2012 presidential campaign coverage. The partnership started modestly.

"They wondered if Jorge Ramos could participate in some way in an ABC News debate," Sherwood recalls. "The answer to that was, 'Sure, no problem.' "

Bigger plans soon beckoned. Sherwood notes Univision's announcements that it intended to create a series of cable networks, involving news, entertainment and sport, to complement its cluster of existing channels.

"Our idea was let's build the channel of the future aimed at English-speaking Hispanics with culturally relevant programming," Sherwood says. "It's as simple — and as bold — as that."

Officials at the two networks say the formula, still evolving, will incorporate lifestyle programming as well, focusing on entertainment, food, health, music and pop culture.

While Univision executives and journalists laud ABC's traditions in news, Sherwood notes that his network brings an additional element: negotiating muscle. Disney, ABC's parent company, can leverage the indispensability of some of its other cable properties, such as the ESPN networks, to convince cable and satellite television providers to carry the new station.

Millions of Americans rely on Univision anchor Jorge Ramos to tell them about the news, but his children aren't among them. Like many Latinos who've grown up in the U.S., they get their news in English.

For ABC, the appeal of working closely with Univision on this project is readily apparent. All three legacy broadcast network divisions lag in attracting Hispanic viewers for their newscasts, even as roughly one in six Americans is Latino. That share is expected to rise, as Hispanics accounted for more than half of the growth of the U.S. population between 2000 and 2010.

Mark Hugo Lopez, associate director of the Pew Hispanic Center, says as immigration to the U.S. from Mexico has slowed, most of that growth occurred among American-born Latinos. They are comfortable moving between media in both languages, he says, or may largely speak English when among friends.

The logic is strong, but the strategy carries its own risks. English-speaking Latinos turn to the same news sources as everyone else, such as existing cable news stations, big newspapers, Yahoo, Twitter and Facebook.

But Spanish-language outlets give greater coverage to stories that affect Latinos directly, including voting rights, immigration and developments in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Lopez points to a 2010 study by the Pew Hispanic Center that found Hispanics who relied on English-language media outlets did not understand nearly as much about that year's census as those who depended on Spanish-language news organizations. English-speaking Latinos, for example, were less likely to realize that authorities could not use the answers provided in the census questionnaires to deport people who are in this country illegally, Lopez said.

"They identify as Hispanic. They call themselves Hispanic," Lopez says, "but they aren't necessarily getting the same sort of news coverage directed specifically to them about being Latino, or about what it means to be Latino."

He says the evidence just doesn't exist yet to prove that the ABC/Univision channel will be a winning concept. The network is expected to first appear on the air sometime in the second quarter of next year. The accompanying English-language website, however, is supposed to make its first appearance sometime this fall.

Ramos says people who prefer English will encounter fuller coverage of issues that affect them in the language in which they're most comfortable.

"Those voices that we hear on a daily basis in Spanish are not being heard in English," Ramos says. "It's time that that starts to happen."

There are some sure signs that a presidential election is fast-approaching: Get out the vote rallies take on a new urgency and the really big names show up. That was all on display yesterday in Parma, Ohio, where Bill Clinton and Bruce Springsteen were the co-headliners. NPR's Don Gonyea was there.

DON GONYEA, BYLINE: The setting was a field house at a community college. The crowd of 3,000 erupted when President Clinton appeared first, beaming and saying he'd had a lot of jobs in his day.

(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)

PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON: But this is the first time in my life I ever got to be the warm-up act for Bruce Springsteen.

GONYEA: This is northeast Ohio, a Democratic stronghold, a place where a big turnout is critical for Mr. Obama. The former president said Ohio is coming back. He highlighted the rescue of GM and Chrysler.

(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)

CLINTON: I love Ohio. It's an old-school place. We like our families. We like our communities. We value personal loyalty. When you were down, you were out and your whole economy was threatened, the president had your back. You've got to have his back now.

GONYEA: The warm-up act eventually yielded the stage.

(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)

CLINTON: The incomparable Bruce Springsteen. Let's hear it for him.

GONYEA: The two embraced. Springsteen laughed.

(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: Yeah, I get to speak after President Clinton. It's like I'm going on after Elvis, here.

GONYEA: Springsteen played solo with acoustic guitar and harmonica.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "NO SURRENDER")

SPRINGSTEEN: (Singing) No retreat, believe me, no surrender.

GONYEA: And he unveiled what he called a campaign song reject.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

SPRINGSTEEN: (Singing) Kissed your sister, then I kissed your momma.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Forward.

SPRINGSTEEN: (Singing) Usually this time of day, I'm in my pajamas.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Forward.

SPRINGSTEEN: (Singing) Let's vote for the man who got Osama.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Forward.

SPRINGSTEEN: (Singing) Forward, and away we go. It's not so bad.

GONYEA: More seriously, though, Springsteen looked back at election night four years ago.

(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)

SPRINGSTEEN: And I'm here today because I've lived long enough to know that despite those galvanizing moment in history, the future is rarely a tide rushing in. It's often a slow march, inch by inch, day after long day. And I believe we are in the midst of those long days right now. And I'm here because I believe President Obama feels those days in his bones, for all 100 percent of us.

GONYEA: And he said voting matters.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE PROMISED LAND")

SPRINGSTEEN: (Singing) Well, the dogs on Main Street howl, because they understand, if I can take one moment in my hands. Mister, I ain't a boy, no, I'm a man. And I believe in a promised land. And I believe...

GONYEA: As the crowd filed out, they were encouraged to sign up to volunteer. Marleis Gibson says she's a 54-year-old Democrat realtor and bus driver.

MARLEIS GIBSON: You know, when I saw Clinton speak at the convention, I went right to my local place and volunteered and went and got my sign and whatnot. So, yeah. And I think it galvanizes you to, you know, drive people to - if they need help to get to vote on voting day.

GONYEA: She said this event makes her want to do more. Springsteen and Clinton split up after Parma. The former president headed to Wintersville, Ohio, Springsteen to Ames, Iowa.

Federal law bars gun sales to the mentally ill only if they've ever been deemed by a judge to be mentally incompetent or involuntarily committed. States reporting of such things to the federal database is spotty, and very often, it doesn't show up when a gun seller does a background check.

Timothy Courtois' family had been worried about him for weeks. They repeatedly told police in Biddeford, Maine, that the 49-year-old was off his meds for bipolar disorder. And police were also told he had guns. But still, because he wasn't doing anything that rose to the legal definition of imminent threat, police said their hands were tied.

"We're very limited — very, very limited to what we can do," says Biddeford Police Deputy Chief JoAnne Fisk. "Just because somebody has a hunch, we will investigate it. But everybody has rights, and you have the right to bear arms in this country."

It was both frustrating and a relief to police and the family when Courtois was finally arrested for speeding down the highway to what could have been a tragedy. Police found an AK-47, handguns and several boxes of ammunition in Courtois' car as he drove toward New Hampshire, he reportedly told police, to shoot a former employer.

Federal law bars gun sales to the mentally ill only if they've ever been deemed by a judge to be mentally incompetent or involuntarily committed. That may have been the case with Courtois, but states' reporting of such things to the federal database is spotty, and very often, it doesn't show up when a gun seller does a background check.

Just because somebody has a hunch, we will investigate it. But everybody has rights, and you have the right to bear arms in this country.

- Biddeford Police Deputy Chief JoAnne Fisk

"It's just shameful to allow people who the law has already said to be too dangerous to have guns to still be able to easily access those guns at licensed dealers," saysDennis Henigan, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

Henigan says Maine has reported just a couple of dozen people out of what may be thousands who should be disqualified — and Pennsylvania, for example, has reported just one.

"Our estimate is that we're probably still missing a million of these records, and this is ridiculous," Henigan says.

But even if reporting were perfect, experts question how much gun violence would be prevented. Federal law doesn't require background checks when guns are sold privately, and even at licensed dealers, the law may not be disqualifying the most dangerous of the mentally ill.

"Do we really know that we're finding the right people?" says Jeff Swanson, a psychiatric professor at Duke University School of Medicine. He says it might make sense legally to only disqualify those who have been officially deemed by a court to be mentally unfit. That's the due process courts require. But clinically, Swanson says, it's a pretty arbitrary line.

"A system that relies on searching for official records may never find those individuals. There are lots of people who have an involuntary commitment history who have virtually zero risk of violence," Swanson says.

It's just shameful to allow people who the law has already said to be too dangerous to have guns to still be able to easily access those guns at licensed dealers.

- Dennis Henigan, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence

Take, for example, someone who is involuntarily committed because he's clinically depressed and not eating. Swanson says more relevant risk factors would be a history of violence or substance abuse. But such an in-depth review of every case would be impractical and, experts concede, still not reliable.

"Our ability to predict human behavior is not that great. We don't even think that we can be right most of the time," says Joel Dvoskin, a forensic and clinical psychologist at the University of Arizona MedicalSchool. "I don't pretend I'm Carnac the Magnificent and that I can hold my hand up to somebody's forehead and tell them what they're going to do in three years. It's a dicey business."

With the risk so uncertain, Dvoskin says, it becomes harder to justify revoking someone's rights in the name of public safety. Richard Bonnie, a law and psychiatry professor at the University of Virginia, agrees. At the very least, he says, there should be better systems set up for people who lose their gun rights to apply to get them back. But also, Bonnie says, there needs to be room for more discretion and ways to take less draconian measures — for example, to temporarily suspend gun rights or seize weapons that someone already has.

"There are cases that arise of someone who does seem to be losing it, but it does not appear that they meet commitment criteria. Under those circumstances, precautionary interventions are needed to try to interrupt access to weapons," Bonnie says.

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Some states do allow such intermediate interventions, and some also go beyond the federal law revoking gun rights, for example, of anyone who's ever been in treatment for mental illness. But given the small percent of mentally ill who commit gun violence, Bonnie cautions casting such a wide net could actually hurt more than it helps.

"The payoff in terms of preventing violence would be very little. Indeed, you probably would pay a very heavy price by discouraging people from treatment, which in the long run probably would result in more violence, not less," Bonnie says.

And then there's the slippery slope. Even the deputy police chief in Maine, who was unable to take guns from a mentally unstable man until it was almost too late, concedes that no one wants police deciding someone shouldn't have a gun just because he's wearing a purple suit today.

Rupert Murdoch, other potential buyers eye L.A. Times

NEWS CORP.'S RUPERT MURDOCH IS SAID TO BE IN EARLY TALKS TO BUY THE L.A. TIMES AND THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE FROM TRIBUNE CO. WGN MAY ALSO BE ON THE BLOCK FOR SALE TO NEWSCORP.

News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch intends to stay in the business that forms the bedrock of his empire, which he grew from the single Australian newspaper he inherited in 1952 to the current $33-billion-a-year global media conglomerate. (Justin Sullivan, Getty Images / October 14, 2011)

Tribune Co.'s debt holders — two investment firms and a bank — will become majority owners of the company after it exits bankruptcy, which could happen by year's end. News Corp. executives have had preliminary talks with these debt holders about acquiring the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune, according to two ranking News Corp. executives and others familiar with the situation.

These people cautioned that talks are in the early stages, and that a deal is by no means certain. Other potential buyers have expressed interest.

Murdoch heads the world's largest news company, which includes the Wall Street Journal and the Times of London.

Acquiring the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune would give him strong footholds in the nation's three largest media markets: New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

Murdoch's lieutenants say he has long wanted to buy The Times. On trips to Los Angeles, he is known to mark up the newspaper with a Sharpie pen to illustrate how he would design pages.

News Corp. and Tribune Co. have existing business ties. Tribune owns 23 television stations, including nine that carry the programming of News Corp.'s two broadcast networks. Tribune stations in San Diego, Sacramento and five other markets are Fox network affiliates.

The Los Angeles Times also prints more than 100,000 copies of the Wall Street Journal that are distributed in Southern California, and the Tribune prints the Journal in Chicago.

Still, regulatory concerns and potential rival bids could stand in the way of an acquisition by a Murdoch-controlled publishing company.

Federal Communications Commission rules prevent owners from owning a newspaper and TV stations in the same market. News Corp. owns two Fox stations in L.A. and two in Chicago.

The FCC has been considering eliminating the rule, and has granted exceptions in the past, including a waiver that has allowed Tribune to operate both KTLA-TV Channel 5 and the Los Angeles Times.

Murdoch isn't the only one eyeing The Times, which by itself could fetch as much as $400 million, according to industry insiders.

Austin Beutner, the former venture capitalist and ex-deputy mayor of Los Angeles, said he has begun reaching out to civic-minded investors who would be willing to put up money to acquire the news organization.

"I would love to see The Times returned to local ownership … and provide a renewed commitment to serious journalism on issues that are important to Los Angeles and California," he said.

Aaron Kushner, the former greeting card executive who bought the Orange County Register and six small papers this year for about $400 million, said Friday that he and the investors he assembled for that deal are also interested in The Times.

"We have tremendous respect for the L.A. Times. It is one of the few institutions in the country that has a tremendous history and heritage, and it is in an important market," Kushner said. "There would be real challenges given what The Times has been going through … but we think there are enough synergies, on the advertising and content side, to make it a strategic fit."

Doug Manchester, the San Diego real estate developer who last year bought the local Union Tribune newspaper for about $110million, may also be a potential bidder.

"We certainly are going to look at it," Manchester told San Diego public radio station KPBS.

Newspapers are struggling amid shifting reader habits, migration to the Internet and a drop in advertising dollars. Newspapers collected nearly $21 billion in advertising last year, but that's a drop of 56% from 2006.

About Me

Actor, Casting Director, Director, Broadcaster, Writer, Singer, Artistic
Director, Dramatur, Producer, Professor, Coach, Husband, Grandfather, Marketing
Professional and life long student Art Lynch joined the staff of John Robert
Powers in 1999. Lynch is also an adjunct professor at the Community College of
Southern Nevada, the Morning Edition Weekend Host for Nevada Public Radio and
one of 67 individuals who represent 126,000 actors as a member of the Board of
Directors of the Screen Actors Guild. He is the past president of the Nevada
Branch of the Screen Actors Guild and of the Professional Audio/Visual Communications
Association. A resident of Nevada since 1984, Lynch has an MA in Communications
from UNLV and a BA in Theater, Speech and Mass Communications from the
University of Illinois, Chicago. He is currently pursuing post-graduate studies
in theater, education and the entertainment industry. Art Lynch studied and
practiced the craft of acting in Chicago and California before settling in
Nevada. With his wife Laura, Art owned and operated a successful marketing
company with national clientele. Art was personally responsible for casting and
directing over 1,000 commercials and industrials, as well as assisting on film
and television projects in many ways. His career also includes earning awards
as a wire service, magazine and broadcast journalist. He is most proud,
however, of his daughters. Ann is a PhD in neuroscience and Beth is the proud
mother of his grandchildren, Evan and Elijah.

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